Article

The purpose of this study was to investigate the typical development of postural
control in younger (5-6 yrs) and older (7-16 yrs) children (YTD and OTD) during
two gait tasks, including level walking and obstacle-crossing, using a dual-task
paradigm, and to compare the results of the children's performance with that of
healthy young adults (HYA). Our findings revealed that gait control in typical
children requires attentional resources to maintain stability. Moreover,
dual-task interference was less in HYA compared to YTD and OTD. Gait performance
decrements in the dual-task context were greater in YTD compared to OTD, whereas
cognitive performance decrements in YTD and OTD were similar. In addition,
dual-tasking affected cognitive performance more in YTD when gait task difficulty
was increased. Results suggest a developmental trend in attentional resources
used to control gait in typical children. Postural control during gait under
dual-task conditions was improved when children were more mature, as attentional
resources increased with age.
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Langue : ANGLAIS